GRAND RAPIDS, MI – CAKE singer John McCrea divided the Frederik Meijer Gardens audience into two groups, the angry and the escapists. His gross categorization was in service of a song, “Sick of You,” which overlaps two complementary melodic lines during the chorus.

McCrea even gave the two halves of the audience direction, like a filmmaker giving actors character motivation: The escapists were – and I’m paraphrasing – people who smoke marijuana and play video games, and the other half would “sing it to somebody you’re frustrated with.” If that sounds complicated, it was; to add another layer of emotional convolution, the song’s pessimistic, defeatist lyrics were sung by the audience with much cheer and enthusiasm. That’s irony.

But it worked, and was an inventive way of deconstructing the rock-concert experience. “Sick of You” concluded the first of two sets Thursday night, and McCrea would later lead a more traditional singing (read: shouting) competition among the audience halves, during a more familiar song, “Short Skirt/Long Jacket.” He deadpanned that it had to be done because “there are winners and losers in life.” In the microcosm of a CAKE concert, the louder you can shout in unison with others, the more likely you’re a winner.

REVIEW: 3 OUT OF 4 STARS

What: CAKE

When and where: June 12, 2014, Frederik Meijer Gardens

Highlight: Lead singer John McCrea led an entertaining and inventive sing-along for the song “Sick of You,” the two halves of the crowd singing complementary melodic lines.

Length: 95 minutes, not counting intermission

Attendance: 1,900 (sold out)

Perhaps the volume was the result of pent-up anticipation: the band made the crowd wait until the very end of the show to hear its biggest songs. If you heard trumpet on alt-rock radio in the late 1990s and early 2000s, it was CAKE. The group cultivated one of the more distinct sounds of that era, and survived because of it, maintaining a devoted following as post-grunge whiners flared and faded.

The set list was heavy with less recognizable material, unleashing hit “Never There” at second set’s conclusion, and wrapping the encore with the big smash, “The Distance.” Notably absent was “Sheep go to Heaven” (but that didn’t stop the guys sitting behind me from yell-singing “SHEEP GO TO HEAVEN, GOATS GO TO HELL” several dozen times, after the band had left the stage for good).

The band’s songs are often clever of lyric and deep of groove, delivered with precision performances and sonic clarity. No member of CAKE overplays, especially guitarist Xan McCurdy, whose surferesque tones and minimalist approach perfectly match McCrea’s squashed-flat vocal delivery. The singer often added texture with a vibraslap, an entertaining gimmick. Vince DiFiore’s trumpet was often the tastiest component; he drew cheers during opening number “Opera Singer,” and during a CAKE-d up take on Black Sabbath’s “War Pigs,” he translated Tony Iommi’s iconic lead guitar with brassy vibrancy.

McCrea acknowledged the venue, having played Meijer Gardens in 2008. Fittingly, he gave a tree to an audience member who correctly identified it as one that produces Bartlett pears, and subsequently agreed to plant it and send the band photos of it as proof. The act wasn’t special to Grand Rapids – McCrea said it happens at every CAKE concert – but he did acknowledge the beauty of the amphitheater and the grounds surrounding it with his stony wit: “This is not a (expletive) rock club.”

The group often showed subtle variations in sound. It courted cowboy balladry with a cover of Willie Nelson’s “Sad Songs and Waltzes” and “Bound Away,” which McCrea introduced as being “in 3/4 time, a time signature that has been largely discarded by popular culture.” “Wheels” featured noir guitar, spacey keyboards punctuated “Love You Madly,” “Stickshifts and Safetybelts” drew from rockabilly twang. The show felt like a slow burn to the big hits, but it never defied our interest.